“I often speak to Klopp. He brought me to the first team when I was 17 and he made it all possible. We never stopped talking.”

Gotze also weighed in on the Premier League title race, which pits Klopp’s Liverpool against another of the Germany international’s former managers as they look to take the crown of Pep Guardiola’s Man City side.

Guardiola was Gotze’s manager at Bayern for three seasons before leaving Germany for England.

“They are difficult to compare because they pursue different philosophies,” Gotze said. “The fact is that both are extremely successful.

“I am grateful to have worked with two such outstanding coaches. I watch the games of both teams as often as possible, the title fight in the Premier League is extremely exciting.”

Lucien Favre pleased as Borussia Dortmund keep their cool with late Wolfsburg win

Borussia Dortmund boss Lucien Favre insists his side kept their cool before a late double from Paco Alcacer secured victory over Wolfsburg and a return to the top of the Bundesliga.

Dortmund, who were missing leading scorer Marco Reus, appeared set to have to settle for a draw as the game entered injury time still deadlocked at 0-0.

But Alcacer finally made the breakthrough when he scored direct from a free-kick in the first minute of stoppage time, and the Spain striker wrapped up the points when he tapped in a second three minutes later.

“We’ve stayed calm because we know anything is possible until the whistle,” Favre told dvb.de

“We really wanted to score in the last 15 minutes, so we also increased the risk a bit.”

Clubs

Domenico Tedesco pays price for Schalke struggles

Domenico Tedesco has been sacked by Schalke in the wake of the 7-0 Champions League humbling by Manchester City.

The Italy-born coach guided Schalke to the Bundesliga’s runners-up spot behind Bayern Munich last season, but the Gelsenkirchen club are currently down in 14th place following three-straight losses.

The final straw appears to have been Tuesday night’s embarrassing display in Manchester, where Pep Guardiola’s City put seven unanswered goals past Schalke to complete a 10-2 aggregate last-16 victory.

Ahead of Saturday’s league meeting with RB Leipzig at Veltins-Arena, former Royal Blues boss Huub Stevens has taken interim control of the first team and will be assisted by Mike Buskens.

“This decision was anything but easy, as we really appreciate Domenico Tedesco at Schalke. He developed the side very well last season that ended with us finishing runners-up,” said the club’s recently-appointed director of sport, Jochen Schneider, on schalke04.de.